


Not One With The Family

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 03:28:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20807780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: With Therese gone at work, Carol avoids socializing at her father-in-law’s birthday party.





	Not One With The Family

Carol cut a slice of frosted pumpkin cake with a knife and laid it gently on a plate. Rindy was standing on her tippy toes by the counter’s edge, watching. Her mother widened her eyes with deep pleasure before licking the stickiness off the pad of her thumb. “You ready to give this piece to Grandpa?” she asked.

“Uh huh,” Rindy answered. Carol lifted the plate and grabbed a fork out from the silverware drawer that was set on the table. Handing the dessert over, Rindy took the plate and darted quickly to go bring it into the living room.

Harge had stopped listening to his new lady friend speak about politics to his mother the moment he saw Rindy barrel through the room with another plate of pumpkin cake. From the piano bench, he watched his daughter carry the dish towards his father, who was seated at one end of the loveseat, fiddling with his tie. The old man’s face lit up the minute he saw his piece of cake being offered by his five-year-old granddaughter. 

“Is that for me?” John Aird questioned. Rindy shyly nodded once he reached over to take the plate and then giving her a one-sided hug with his arm. Rindy kissed his whiskered, chalky cheek before leaving him be. She raced back into the kitchen where her mother was. Harge couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy. He practically had to beg for Rindy’s affection these days. It was so easy for his ex-wife. Rindy was over the moon for her mother.

“Mommy, how come you’re eating in here?” Rindy asked Carol, standing in front of her by the window. She gazed up at her with mid-length hair. It grew last summer and became darker. Carol balanced her cake in one hand and began combing her fingers through her daughter's locks with the other.

“It’s not so crowded, my dear,” Carol explained to the child. And the fact that she liked having her own space and didn’t want to be in the same room as her ex-husband and his new love interest, Gloria Belmont. Gloria worked as a secretary for Harge’s car insurance company on the weekdays and then mostly go out to dinner with him on the weekends. Gloria was twenty-seven with dark brown eyes and wide-curled brown hair. She faked a smile during the meet-and-greet with Carol, who felt just as irritated by Harge’s ballsy move of bringing one of his insurance women over to his father’s birthday party. She arrived an hour before them and had spent playing stuffed animals with her daughter and slipped out for a quick smoke in the yard before seeing the Rolls Royce pull up through the roundabout driveway.

“What does ‘crowded’ mean?” Rindy pressed the palms of her hands on parts of Carol’s high-waisted wool skirt.

“It means having too many people inside one room.”

“Am I crowding you, Mommy?” 

Carol laughed softly and shook her head. “You are perfect right where you are...” she took hold of Rindy’s chin before picking her fork off the plate and digging right back into her cake again.


End file.
